News: MA patients have 40% longer hospital stays than traditional Medicare, study shows

Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries have less access to post-acute care services than their traditional Medicare counterparts, according to a new report conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago cited by the American Hospital Association (AHA).

The report examined traditional Medicare and MA claims from 2018 to 2022. According to the AHA, it found that “patients enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans are more likely to experience longer hospital stays and experience delays in transfer to post-acute care facilities than those on Traditional Medicare.”

In particular, the report also found that MA patients had 40% longer hospital stays than those with traditional Medicare.

The NORC report outlined three key findings:

1. Hospital discharges: “MA plans had 192 discharges per 1,000 beneficiaries, compared to 223 discharges per 1,000 in TM By 2022, the discharge rate has decreased for both MA and [traditional Medicare] beneficiaries to 180 and 178 per 1,000, respectively.”
2. Discharges to post-acute care: “Between 2018 and 2022, MA hospital discharges to [post-acute care] increased by 5.6% from 338 to 357 beneficiaries per 1,000 MA discharges. [traditional Medicare] hospital discharges, however, decreased by 1.5% from 401 to 395 per 1,000 [traditional Medicare] discharges.”
3. Hospital length of stay (LOS): “Across all [post-acute care] settings, MA beneficiaries have consistently longer average and median LOS compared to [traditional Medicare] beneficiaries.”

Editor’s note: To read the AHA coverage, click here. To read the NORC report, click here.